💪🤷♀️🥹🤗Third phase of breast cancer treatments, round two. I met with oncology today for the second time. And I have two patient advocates today; so that’s super exciting.
I went in with Lots of questions, especially being post menopausal with no ovaries what is estrogen positive cancer????? Cause honestly having estrogen positive cancer has been more difficult intellectually to understand than having triple negative cancer 11 years ago …. Today I was explained to in detail why we get estrogen positive cancer when we’re 10 years post menopause and I understand better.
I’m copying pasting so much information on it which explains - why I felt and why I feel like I do over the last year and a half.
-Haven’t started medication yet cause I gotta follow up with the breast surgeon again cause I have a 4.5 cm mass in that breast that we gotta figure out that 😳 and then I’ll start the medication. 💊
-Breast cancer is not always pretty like pink, but with support and resources and the best team it gives me hope that things will get better way sooner than later.
🙏🏻
…. Estrogen-positive breast cancer means the cancer cells rely on estrogen to grow. Even post-menopause, a woman's body still produces small amounts of estrogen in fat tissues. ( I still get confused cause less than 90 pounds again so where is is the fat on my body estrogen is being stored?)
…..Symptoms like mood swings and body aches that appear around the diagnosis phase are generally caused by the sudden shifts and overall drop in active hormones.
…..These symptoms can manifest due to several factors prior to starting any medical treatments:
🥹 Stress and Emotional Toll: A cancer diagnosis triggers immense emotional stress, which alters brain chemistry.
🧪 High levels of cortisol (stress hormones) and anxiety can cause significant mood swings, irritability, and sadness.
🧠 Disruptions in Brain Chemistry: Estrogen plays a direct role in regulating mood and serotonin levels in the brain. Even natural drops in estrogen can lead to depressive feelings, sleep disturbances, and irritability.
🤬Systemic Inflammation: Cancer cells and the body's natural immune response to them can release inflammatory cytokines.
….These chemicals can spread throughout the body, triggering widespread joint and muscle aches 🤬
💤 Sleep Disruption: Night sweats and anxiety-induced insomnia prevent restorative sleep, which often manifests the following day as physical fatigue, body aches, and emotional reactivity.
…. Potential Future Medication EffectsIf your treatment plan includes endocrine/hormone therapy (such as aromatase inhibitors or tamoxifen), these medications are designed to block or severely lower remaining estrogen in the body. These therapies essentially simulate or intensify a menopausal state.
Consequently, they can amplify or prolong the mood changes and joint or muscle aches you are already experiencing.Could you tell me:What specific tests or treatments (if any) have been discussed with your oncology team?When these specific symptoms first started?I can help you prepare questions and find ways to manage these side effects before or during treatment….
Ps if you have questions, ask your team if they don’t know the answers get a patient advocate.
We need better prevention and understanding how to stop so many different type of breast cancers and so many of us that are getting breast cancer so many different types of breast cancers, new primaries, reoccurrences, or metastatic 🙏🏻 I truly pray for prevention and a cure a real cure but for now I can hope I can pray and I can believe that the medication‘s I’m gonna take will help save my life and help fix some of the broken pieces, especially the bone pain, the osteoporosis insomnia, the mood swings and most of all the relationships and friendships. These are all the things we need to have together to get through life’s most challenging moments.
 Thank you for listening to my second journey and trying to educate while I’m advocating for myself and learning a whole new set of information that is way over my head medically which I’m learning day by day personally.
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